Conservatives reject bid to have AG audit food safety

Conservative senators have rejected a bid to require Canada’s auditor general to verify that the government is devoting sufficient resources to food safety inspections.

Instead, Bill S-11 will leave it to the agriculture minister to determine every five years whether their officials have enough staff and a large enough budget to ensure that food safety is properly monitored.

“I’m disappointed, obviously,” said Liberal Senator Robert Peterson who proposed the auditor general be assigned to oversee resource audits every five years. “I think Canadians would have expected more.”

However, Conservative Senator Don Plett, who sponsored the bill, says it will still improve the monitoring of food safety in Canada without dictating to the auditor general what they should audit.

“I do believe that this bill will enhance and speed up recalls should they be necessary and I do believe that this will add to food safety in general.”

The bill, which would overhaul Canada’s food inspection system, passed clause-by-clause study by the Senate’s Agriculture and Forestry committee Thursday morning and is to be returned to the Senate Thursday afternoon for third and final reading.

However, since it was first tabled in the Senate, it now has to go to the House of Commons for passage before it can become law.

Meanwhile, Canadian Food Inspection Agency vice-president Neil Bouwer, told senators that the government has already begun drafting the regulations that will accompany the bill.

The approval of the bill by committee comes as the biggest recall of beef in Canadian history widened once again Thursday as officials continue to track potentially tainted beef produced by the XL Foods plant in Brooks, Alberta. The recall now encompasses millions of pounds of beef and dozens of products that were distributed throughout the country.

Four Canadians have become sick after eating beef from the plant that was contaminated with E.coli.

Wednesday, the president of the union that represents federal meat inspectors called for an independent inquiry into the events that led to the contamination and the wisdom of allowing industries like meat processing to self inspect.

Bob Kingston, president of the Agriculture Union, said inspectors at the plant are being “muzzled” and told not to talk with anyone. However, Kingston said the plant has had problems in the past. While it currently has its full complement of inspectors, there has recently been a shortage of CFIA inspectors at the plant.

Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz went on the offensive Thursday, convening a hastily called news conference to refute a report that the XL Foods plant was about to resume partial operations.

Ritz said the plant will not be allowed to reopen until the president of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency confirms to him, in writing, that the meat produced by the plant is safe.

Minutes later, however, Ritz was on the defensive as the opposition began to hammer the government in Question Period over the tainted beef for the fourth day in a row.

NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair accused Ritz of hiding problems with the meat produced by the plant from Canadians and called for Ritz’s resignation.

Liberal Leader Bob Rae demanded to know why Canadian authorities only suspended XL Foods’ license to operate on Sept. 27 when CFIA removed XL Foods from the list of facilities allowed to export to the U.S. on Sept. 13.